RELIC: Religious Cultures and Communities

Mission statement

Placing the focus on religion, RELIC seeks to unlock key questions about the formation of communities around the globe, and how these communities were formed at all social levels and across history. We understand religion to be at root a cultural phenomenon manifested through cultural artifacts (texts, images, practices, objects, etc.) that are the basis of our study as a group. We also take a broad definition of communities, meaning groups large and small, from a few individuals or households to entire nations and ‘communities of the faithful’ (e.g. Christendom, Ummah).

Our aims:

1. Creating opportunities for interdisciplinary exchange across faculties (Arts and Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies)
2. Integrating a variety of different cultural source types (art and architecture, coins, law, literature, liturgy, sermons, scripture, etc.) to understand how religious communities come to define themselves, and how religious values are communicated within and between communities,
3. Investigating religious diversity, how it is expressed culturally, and its effect on the formation of religious identities, thinking about, for example, the intersection between race and religion throughout history
4. Disseminating our research more broadly to help students and the wider public recognize the central place religion plays in historical and social processes

By talking across disciplines and across time periods, we hope to get at the mechanisms by which group identities have come to be defined through and by religion and its cultural expression.

Activities

1. Joining the Faculties of Arts and Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies and creating a cross-faculty digital platform for sharing expertise on research into religious subjects. 
2. Fostering cross-historical/disciplinary discussion around new and ongoing research through regular seminars featuring work-in-progress, reading groups and skills-oriented workshops
3. Broadening horizons for research/teaching by introducing members to new frameworks and concepts through targeted thematic lectures/discussions (e.g. Religion and Race, Religion and Media, Lived Religion, Religion and Migration, etc.)